Why is Germany protecting Iraqi informant who lied about WMDs?

ByJOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
German politicians in the state of Baden-Württemberg are questioning the protection given by German intelligence services to a notorious Iraqi informant, who lied about Iraq’s weapons program. Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, known in intelligence circles as “Curveball”, arrived in Germany in 1999, where he applied for political asylum, saying he had been employed as a senior scientist in Iraq’s biological weapons program. Despite serious doubts expressed at the time by officials in Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, and by some of their CIA colleagues, al-Janabi was given asylum in Germany. Moreover, information gathered from his testimony became a major source of the Bush Administration’s argument in favor of going to war in Iraq in 2003. Less than a year later, both the BND and the CIA concluded that al-Janabi had been lying about his alleged biological weapons role, and that he was in reality a taxi driver from Baghdad, who had used his undergraduate knowledge of engineering to fool Western intelligence. In light of this, it appears strange, to say the least, that al-Janabi was allowed to apply —and eventually receive, in 2008— German citizenship. Even stranger is the fact that he has been financially sustained by the German state for nearly a decade, receiving until 2008 a €3,000 ($4,000) monthly stipend from Thiele und Friedrichs, a BND front company based in Munich. Now regional parliament members from the German Greens are pressuring officials in the Foreign Ministry of Baden-Württemberg to explain why al-Janabi was allowed to stay in Germany, was financially supported by the German state, and was awarded with German nationality, despite lying about his background in his official immigration application. Foreign Ministry officials respond that al-Janabi’s application was “handled” by the BND; but the Green parliamentarians dismiss this explanation and have vowed to press on with their inquiry.

2 Responses to Why is Germany protecting Iraqi informant who lied about WMDs?

Another good piece of news. They are not protecting him. He has been stripped of his citizenship and they are looking for another country to send him to, because it’s obviously not safe for that guy in Iraq. They are playing the medias fiddle, because they want detectors from al Qaeda, Iran and all the other groups to co tinue to defect to the West. If we throw this guy to the wolves, they won’t think it’s safe to come over either. And from them not coming we lose our, probably third most important and fruitfull intelligence streams, the second being our SIGINT reports. and the first is our on scene HUMINT collections operators. We have to keep up a good image with the jihadist in order for them to believe we can protect them and keep them safe, all hile providing them a standard of living that is king like in their respective Arab countries. Come on guys…. Te Intelligence Game is all about deception, smoke and mirrors. My 5th grader could have figured this out.
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